Undead Nightmare is a fun little 'what-if' conceptual offshoot of the main game that really feels like Rockstar should venture into more one-off genre-bending experiments like it. According to the rumor mill, GTA V was indeed going to have three separate expansions of this caliber for each of its protagonists, but that, of course, fell through. As it stands, though, this is still pretty much the pinnacle of DLC (or at least near the mountaintop).
It's a very simple premise: the undead have risen, and Marston must get to the bottom of it and save his family. The plot is mostly a fun excuse to revisit all of the main campaign's characters and locations again and see how they're dealing with the present circumstances in a way that feels like a love letter to the base game, much like Mass Effect 3's 'Citadel' DLC. It's a fun, darkly comic take on the existing world and characters of Redemption that never takes itself seriously and doesn't try to be anything more than it is.
The gameplay is likewise an exercise in simplicity, combining the open-world cowboying of the base game with the more arcadey shooter antics of Red Dead Revolver as you go from town to town and clear them of zombies. It's a fun spin on the proceedings, and being <6 hours long in total, it doesn't overstay its welcome either.
That being said, there is still quite a bit of tedium here, with a few mandatory main and side quests just being fetch quests for random unmarked items in the world and an underwhelming couple of missions in the back half of the expansion's main questline.
Still, Undead Nightmare is a fun and inspired side venture that pays homage to zombie horror classics and Red Dead Redemption as a whole with its irreverent tone and gameplay and great 'psychobilly' soundtrack.
8/10
It's a very simple premise: the undead have risen, and Marston must get to the bottom of it and save his family. The plot is mostly a fun excuse to revisit all of the main campaign's characters and locations again and see how they're dealing with the present circumstances in a way that feels like a love letter to the base game, much like Mass Effect 3's 'Citadel' DLC. It's a fun, darkly comic take on the existing world and characters of Redemption that never takes itself seriously and doesn't try to be anything more than it is.
The gameplay is likewise an exercise in simplicity, combining the open-world cowboying of the base game with the more arcadey shooter antics of Red Dead Revolver as you go from town to town and clear them of zombies. It's a fun spin on the proceedings, and being <6 hours long in total, it doesn't overstay its welcome either.
That being said, there is still quite a bit of tedium here, with a few mandatory main and side quests just being fetch quests for random unmarked items in the world and an underwhelming couple of missions in the back half of the expansion's main questline.
Still, Undead Nightmare is a fun and inspired side venture that pays homage to zombie horror classics and Red Dead Redemption as a whole with its irreverent tone and gameplay and great 'psychobilly' soundtrack.
8/10